Effective Medical Waste Management for Sustainable Green Healthcare

Authors

• Sang M. Lee, University of Nebraska at LincolnFollow
• DonHee Lee, Inha University

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

11-10-2022

Citation

Lee, S.M.; Lee, D. Effective Medical Waste Management for Sustainable Green Healthcare. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 14820. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph192214820

Comments

Open access.

Abstract

This study examines the importance of medical waste management activities for developing a sustainable green healthcare environment. This study applied a multiple methodological approach as follows. A thorough review of the literature was performed to delineate the factors that have been explored for reducing medical waste; hospital staff who handle medical waste were surveyed to obtain their opinions on these factors; the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to determine the priorities among the identified key factors; and experts’ opinions were consulted to assess the actual applicability of the results derived by the AHP. The study identified the following factors as the most important: medical waste management (26.6%), operational management issues (21.7%), training for medical waste management procedures (17.8%), raising awareness (17.5%), and environmental assessment (16.4%). This study analyzed the contributing factors to the generation of medical waste based on the data collected from medical staff and the AHP for developing a sustainable green healthcare environment. The study results provide theoretical and practical implications for implementing effective medical waste management toward a sustainable green healthcare environment.